Forget Twinkies, these teens make their own butter

PLAINFIELD – Last Thursday in the small kitchen of a Goddard College dorm, Enoch Marshall, 16, was using a food processor to churn heavy Vermont cream into butter.

"Look how yellow that butter is," pointed out Crystal Maderia, chef-owner of Kismet restaurant in Montpelier, as she worked with Enoch and two of his Central Vermont High School Initiative classmates to prepare the school's weekly community lunch.

"The cows are grass-fed so that gives it the color and there's also more Vitamin K in their milk," Maderia continued, going on to explain that the big bag of kale on the work table was also rich in the same vitamin.

"I always said if I ever had my own restaurant, I'd make my own butter," she said. "And it's a great teaching tool, too; it teaches chemistry, biology and nutrition."

About 10 minutes later — after Enoch had kneaded excess liquid from the churned butter and happily quaffed a tall glass of buttermilk with an enthusiastic "sweet!" — the three teens demonstrated that butter can also be a teaching tool for artistic expression as they each molded a butter sculpture for the meal.

It was a perfect example of the Waldorf school's philosophy as articulated by Isabel Taylor, 16, while she opened boxes of locally-made tofu for a curried tofu salad.

"It's more like a holistic way of learning, taking what you learn and applying it," Isabel explained, "like there's more to school than just sitting in a classroom."

Central Vermont High School Initiative is in its second year renting space from Goddard College to provide this kind of learning environment for about 20 teens, many of whom previously attended Orchard Valley Waldorf School in East Montpelier. Enoch travels to the school from St. Johnsbury, but most students are from Montpelier and surrounding towns.

Maderia, who is also the parent of a student, provides support for the biology and health instructors and is the community lunch coordinator. To this role, she brings not only her background as a chef but also extensive studies in holistic nutrition and experience teaching food preservation.

Crystal Madeira (right) explains the properties of herbs that Alexa West, an 11th-grader from East Montpelier, is using to make chai as they prepare a community meal at Central Vermont High School Initiative last week .

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Cultivating the palate

The weekly meal usually feeds about 30 students, teachers and a handful of guests including parents, community members and, last Thursday, two prospective students. It is served family-style and Maderia pays close attention to a wide range of dietary needs; the main dishes are always gluten- and nut-free, as well as vegetarian or vegan.

Each week a different group of students works with her to create a meal featuring many donated ingredients from local farms, food producers and school families.

"We never really know what we're going to have," Maderia said with a smile. "It's kind of like one of those mystery basket cooking competitions."

Last Thursday's main dish was a salad of cabbage, apples and turnips topped with the curried tofu and lentils. Served alongside would be hard-cooked eggs, kale pesto, bread, freshly churned butter and hot spiced tea.

Enoch finished chopping ginger to put in the steaming pot of chai tea simmering on the stove next to another pot filled with dozens of local eggs coming slowly to a boil. Isabel tossed several spices including turmeric over cubed tofu.

"Turmeric is one of our super-foods," Maderia explained to the students. "It's super anti-inflammatory and its bitterness helps with digestion. It also adds such a nice golden color."

"It really comes down to giving them the tools to be confident adults," she summarized. "We hope to develop their palate in multiple ways, to show that healthy food tastes good. Also we would like them to cultivate a palate for community: for what it's like to share a meal together and to experiment with different philosophies around food, different cultures."

Students Enoch Marshall and Alexa West make kale pesto for a community meal at Central Vermont High School Initiative, last week.

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"A good thing to know"

Alexa West, also 16, was separating cilantro leaves from stems for the pesto. Like most of the Central Vermont High School Initiative students, she knew more than the average teenager about the source of her food.

"My family grows our own meat like turkeys and pigs and also eggs," Alexa said. "We have a big vegetable garden and I hunt with my dad so we usually have deer, too. Cooking is a good thing to know for quality of life," she continued. "I have a special rule, I don't eat anything if I don't know what's in it."

As she chopped cabbage for the salad, Isabel said, "I'm into food. I like food that tastes good, things that have been locally grown. I can really taste the difference between organic and regular milk and the difference of fresh, local tomatoes."

The minutes ticked by toward the 12:30 lunch hour and Maderia put a little sense of urgency into her team. Isabel was assigned to mix up a dressing for the salad and shared how Maderia had taught the students to create their own.

"We don't really use recipes," Maderia said.

"She told us you need something salty, sweet, sour and spicy. You pick one of each that taste good together. It's a balance," Isabel explained. "Crystal said, 'Just go to fridge and grab something in each category.' We made the best one with apricot jam, which is a little sweet and a little sour, and also mustard, tamari and olive oil."

"Salad dressings also teach about emulsification," Maderia added as she finished slicing apples and small white turnips for the salad while Enoch blended the last batches of kale pesto and then joined Alexa slicing bread.

Crystal Madeira shows 11th-grader Enoch Marshall of St. Johnsbury (right) how to knead water out of freshly-made butter as they prepare a community meal at Central Vermont High School Initiative, last week. The high school program rents space at Goddard College in Plainfield. Isabelle Taylor, an 11th-grader from Berlin (left), prepares a spicy tofu and cabbage salad. CVHSI students take turns making the weekly meal.

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Delicious and nutritious

The toasty smell from a cast iron skillet of tamari-coated sunflower seeds swirled with the aroma of the chai tea and the sharp, sweet scent of an orange Isabel was zesting to scatter over dark chocolate with a sprinkle of sea salt for dessert.

A teacher popped her head in to see how lunch was coming and Maderia asked for a student to help set the table.

Zak Kline, 15, came in to assist, adding a third long table in between the two already lined up end to end and then laying silverware and plates at each place.

He reflected on his own experience cooking a community meal the first week of school. "You knew you were making food for the rest of the school and everyone liked it," he said with satisfaction.

The three butter sculptures of a starfish, pumpkin and witch's hat sat among small bowls of emerald-green kale pesto and boiled eggs as well as larger bowls of cabbage and tofu salad sprinkled with currants and tamari-toasted sunflower seeds and tossed with Isabel's orange juice, cider vinegar and mustard dressing. Maderia topped each bowl with a ladleful of black lentils.

Meg Scherbatskoy, another parent who also serves as the practical arts teacher, educational support coordinator and international languages coordinator, paused to share her perspective on the value of the community meal.

"Nutrition is highly important, especially for teenagers," she said. "It's good for them to understand and be aware of how their body reacts to food, how they get energy. Preparing food for everyone helps them have an understanding of that and doing things for others, too. They try so many different things through these meals. We want them to have knowledge of this kind of eating."

The cooking team headed over to the room where their classmates, teachers and guests were gathering in a circle and each took a turn outlining the meal from the freshly churned butter to all the spices in the chai tea and the baked tofu, with Maderia gently interjecting some of the nutrition highlights.

The whole group concluded with a blessing said in unison: "The earth is good to me. And so I thank the earth for giving me the things I need, like the sun and the rain and the apple seed. The earth is good to me."

Students, faculty and guests at Central Vermont High School Initiative serve themselves at a community meal, last week. The high school program rents space at Goddard College in Plainfield. CVHSI students take turns cooking the weekly meal.

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"Community meal in every sense"

Everyone filed into the dining area and quickly took seats around the table, pouring hot tea into canning jar glasses, digging big spoons into the salad and slathering golden butter and pesto on slices of crusty bread.

Tahla Woodnim, 15, noted that the spice combination on the tofu was warming and worked well against the crisp chopped cabbage, apples and turnips. "It was exactly what I needed," she said. "I was cold from the rain and now I'm warm from the inside out."

Sometimes, Tahla said, "The food can push you outside your comfort zone, but Crystal just asks us to try it. It gives us the experience to try things you might not try."

"Crystal knows her stuff. She's a library of knowledge and she makes it fun," added Mary Perchlik, 16, detailing how the meals are always seasonal and also often incorporate cultural holidays or themes, "like for Rosh Hashanah [the Jewish New Year], we had apples and honey. And we've had Indian food and for Chinese New Year, the food matched."

"It's celebrating through food," said Tahla.

Almost every student helped themselves to seconds as they chatted up and down the long table.

"It's inspiring to watch Crystal when she comes in with a huge bunch of cilantro from her garden and makes something so good from it," said Stella Kahn, 14, who planned to try to recreate the salad at home. "Community lunch makes me so glad to go to this school."

"It's a community meal in every sense of the word," Mary said. "Not only do we make it but it's open to the community and the food is provided by the community."

"It warms up the whole school," she concluded.

"It makes the school smell good, too," added Rina Scherbatskoy, 15.

"It's nice because we don't always eat like this at home," said Citlalli Haase, 16. "The food is so healthy and satisfying."

Normally Central Vermont High School Initiative's community meal dessert is very simply melted dark chocolate spread and sprinkled with a flavoring such as orange zest and salt, or even seaweed, and chilled to firmness. But after a recent student camping trip returned with extra instant oats, Crystal Maderia came up with this quick, no-bake dessert on the fly. If made with certified gluten-free oats, it is gluten-free, dairy-free and nut-free.

Line a 13- by 9-inch baking dish with parchment paper with a generous overhang so that you can lift it out of the pan when bars are set. In a large bowl, combine oats, tahini, honey, date puree and salt. Melt chocolate in the top of a double boiler or microwave just until it whisks smoothly together. Pour over oat mixture and stir to blend thoroughly. Scrape mixture into pan and use a spatula to spread it evenly. Chill in refrigerator for at least one hour. Lift bars in parchment out of pan, cut into bars and serve. Keep any remaining bars chilled although they'll be OK at cool room temperature for a couple days. Makes about 35 small bars.